Illinois attempts to change reality in the name of ‘compassion’

A proposal that would make it easier for transgender people to change their birth certificates to reflect their gender identity cleared an initial hurdle Wednesday, as supporters said the existing process in Illinois often can make life unnecessarily difficult.

A longtime Illinois law says transgender people can only change the sex listed on their birth certificates if a doctor says they’ve had transition surgery. Under a new plan approved by a House committee, a birth certificate could be changed if a medical or mental health provider confirms someone has received “clinically appropriate” treatment. A range of practices including hormone therapy would be covered, using a similar standard that applies to U.S. passports.

Supporters say doing away with the surgery requirement would relieve a burden put on transgender men and women and reflects scientific findings that operations are not a necessary medical treatment. Grayson Alexander, a high school senior in Springfield, said he can’t change his birth certificate in Illinois because he can’t afford surgery without jeopardizing his plans to attend college.

Advocates said people can be denied coverage for preventive care like pap smears and prostate exams if their birth certificates and identities don’t match.

“It’s also a symbolic thing to be recognized by the state as the gender that you identify as,” Alexander said. “That is immensely important. It’s very validating.”

Ralph Rivera of the conservative Illinois Family Institute told lawmakers at Wednesday’s hearing the legislation is too lax and would not limit how often people can change their sex designations. He also contended the proposal could allow some people to prey on children or further traumatize sexual assault victims in restrooms.

“We need to have compassion for those women, those girls,” Rivera said

The legislation cleared a House committee by a 7-4 vote, with Democrats voting for it and Republicans against. Now, the full House can consider it.

The debate in Springfield comes amid a larger push to expand gay, lesbian and transgender rights in Illinois following the election of President Donald Trump and his decision to roll back federal protections for transgender students. A recent executive order he signed eliminated guidelines issued under President Barack Obama that transgender students can use public school restrooms that correspond with their gender identity.

Another proposal before state lawmakers would prohibit male students from using a restroom or changing room designated for females, and vice versa. To accommodate transgender students, schools could — but would not be required to — establish separate, single-occupancy bathrooms and changing rooms.

Rep. Tom Morrison, R-Palatine, said he views his plan as a compromise on a controversial issue. He said students shouldn’t have to change in front of someone with different anatomy, but he said it’s important to also “compassionately and reasonably” address the needs of transgender students.

“We can do that in a way that does not disrupt or take away from the privacy rights of the other students,” Morrison said.

Equality Illinois CEO Brian Johnson called this practice unfair and said students should be able to use restrooms that align with their gender identity.

“We want to make sure that all transgender kids — in fact, all kids — are able to live honestly and openly and authentically in schools and in their public life,” he said.

Democrats who control the Illinois House haven’t scheduled a debate on Morrison’s plan.

His district covers part of Township High School District 211, which has been embroiled in conflict over transgender students’ access to bathrooms and locker rooms. A group of parents and students sued the district and federal government after a fight with federal officials led the district to grant a transgender student full access to a girls’ high school locker room. The group argues the policy violates students’ privacy and says gender identity shouldn’t be included under Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on sex. The suit is ongoing.

While the Trump administration has heightened concerns among advocates for gay and transgender rights, they also say there was more work to be done in Illinois even before he took office. To that end, Democrats are pushing other efforts to broaden protections in Illinois.

A measure sponsored by Sen. Daniel Biss, D-Evanston, would prohibit people accused of second-degree murder from claiming they were provoked by the victim’s sexual orientation.

Democrats are also floating legislation that prohibits juries from excluding someone based on sexual orientation, race, gender and more. Another bill would give applicants to boards and commissions under the governor’s office the option of disclosing their sexual orientation. Johnson said data collected through that system would allow advocates to ensure the LGBTQ community is represented in state boards.

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36 Comments

“supporters said the existing process in Illinois often can make life unnecessarily difficult.”

So it is now unnecessary to record the details of a birth because we magically know who everyone thinks they are

No reason for objectivity that is unnecessarily difficult, when we can have utter confusion and chaos from letting each rule others from what they think is best based only on their subjective view

You can pretend to be what ever you want, but no one has a right to force anyone else to buy into it, and if legal documents are being altered to lie about the facts of a matter they cannot possibly be legal documents and no one need trust them.

So, tell me again, why you are wasting your time even printing them?

And I did mention, WHY we have a GDP greater than other nations?

TRUST

Which comes from the rule of law because we can trust things are what they claim to be so we can invest in the future being reasonably able to calculate the risk.

If we could turn back time. The problem is NOT that people want to have an abortion it is that wanting to have an abortion shows they are an unfit parent and should not have the choice of having a live birth.

Agreed. It must be the RULE of Law, not the suggestion of law. If anything else rules, then the Law is of no effect.

Compassion sounds nice, but like most words used by liberals its meaning has been perverted. Compassion can’t be applied evenly like the law can. If you show compassion for the criminal who broke into someone’s house, that shows a complete lack of passion for the victims.

Forced compassion becomes lack of compassion. It’s all about who you’re pointing it at, and if they’re on the list of “cool kids”. Transgenders are on that list, thanks to people like Obama and Clinton. When they are, regular people are not. We saw this when bakers were forced to bake cakes for lesbian weddings. Compassion to one, an iron fist for the other.

The Law was made impartially, and applies evenly to everyone (when done right). When we’re writing the law, there’s no way to know who will rob the house next year. Will it be you or will it be me? It shouldn’t be anyone but it’s going to happen. Thus the law against it.

Laws should be made to punish the guilty, not to get the govt to beat up on your political enemies.

This is insane. Even the transgender activists refer to “gender assigned at birth,” which is what the birth certificate records. (Actually, the gender was assigned at conception, when the chromosomal arrangement occurred, but oh well.) Changing the birth certificate to reflect a later decision should be treated as a falsification of an official record. If the person wants to declare him/her/itself a different gender than that “assigned at birth,” that should be a different document altogether — similar to a decree of divorce or even a change to a person’s military discharge status.

Oh, but I forgot … leftists don’t want to deal with reality. They write and rewrite it as they please.

I see some “compassionate” gender confused person did some voting here. There is NO compelling reason for anyone to change their birth certificate. PERIOD. It is a historical record of what happened not a note scribbled in pencil. If someone wants to change their gender, fine have your surgery but don’t presume that you can change your sex on this historical record any more than you can change your mother, your father, your name at birth, the date you were born, where you were born, your weight, your height, the color of your eyes and hair, nor what time you were born. Maybe we should add a check box for Mother a Leftist Whack Job and one for Father a Leftist Whack Job. Then we would have a record that this kid had a very poor chance of being a productive member of society from birth.

Supporters of this legislation and the Transgender movement in general are simply enablers of psychologically damaged people. Supporters encourage these sick people to remain ill, and get worse, instead of helping them find treatment that will allow them to accept reality and begin to live a normal life.
Be “Trans” if you want but I’m not going to play along.

It is possible that someone born male but took massive doses of estrogen might have induced a cancer that would be revealed by a pap smear. Some might say that’s a case of getting what you asked for. But there is no way someone born female but now thinks she is male has a prostate.

The solution to this may be to mark women’s restrooms as XX and men’s as XY.

Actually, there’s no way someone born male would have a uterus in order to GET a pap smear, nor would he be able to get ovarian or cervical cancer, because he wouldn’t have ovaries or a cervix. Breast cancer, maybe; even men get breast cancer. So that brings up another problem, in that massive doses of estrogen do increase the risk of breast cancer.

Physical gender is fixed- psychological gender may not – so no change to what is physically obvious- what does it matter anyway? You are physically what how you were born- if emotionally you feel different- dress & act as you please, as long as it doesn’t infringe on my/anyone’s rights (to privacy etc)- that is the only “right” you have- the right to dress however you want,. I recently watched a weeping guy dressed as a gal, who was claiming prejudice, because guys didn’t want to date him! OH MY wonder why?!

I wonder how long it will be before we see lawsuits against guys like that for NOT dating this “IT”.. Suing cause of his hurt feelings…

And with as many liberal activist judges we still have on the benches through out the country, i can EASILY see one or two of them ruling that the straight guys have to date her, or they ARE Being discriminatory…. WHICH TO ME is totally brain dead..

This is the same as re-writing historical fact which is illegal in many cases. The problems this will cause are immeasurable. That aside, Chicago is the murder capital of the universe, the state of Illinois owes more money than most countries, taxes are beyond what people can pay, and THIS is what the Democrat controlled legislature chooses to spend time and taxpayer money on? They should all be run out of town on a rail.

Barack Obama wanted this law for his gay husband/tranny Mike Michelle Obama. Next, Obama wants to change their fake Social Security numbers for Kenya born Barack (using a SS# belonging to a 118 year old man), and Mike/Michelle Obama using someone else’s SS#. Hope the Obamas will be convicted and sent to Guantánamo Bay prison before historical facts reveal this pathetic scum of the earth.

This, my friends and fellow jaw-droppers, is the definition of psychosis; the unwillingness/inability to accept reality, that then stimulates the imagining of a fantasy, an alternative reality, where anything and everything is as the afflicted wishes it to be, with no nod given to the actual reality that still exists. We witness examples of it daily; fake news, insinuated conspiracies, bogeymen under every bed, stolen tax returns miraculously appearing in mailboxes, a worldview from closed eyes, and, well, you get it, I’m sure. AND THE ANSWER IS: Lefty-Loony World, where Hillary is President, Barack is god, and illegal aliens, thug rappers, murderers, rapists, and pedophiles are respected, idealized, and in charge.

So, sexual identity is now akin to quantum physics, where a particle, or, sexual identity, can be in two or more places at once. Wow! I wish I’d known that when I was a teen-ager. If this completely ridiculous argument had any force of fact, then, to paraphrase Woody Allen, nobody (pun intended) would ever have to worry about a date for Saturday night.

Why not give them a permit, a conditional use permit of sorts, to be whatever they want to be and then every two years or so they can get their permit renewed or whatever. They will probably object to the small fee, but somebody has to keep track of whatever they are and that costs money.

Being we have seen some say (in the LGBTQRS that these transgendered /sexually/gender queer individuals cna Change their gender ID MORE THAN ONCE in a day (gender fluid) how will a permit do a damn thing?? OTHER than legitimize their insanity on the rest of us???

“Advocates said people can be denied coverage for preventive care like pap smears and prostate exams if their birth certificates and identities don’t match.”

If you were born female, think you’re male, and change your birth certificate to reflect what you think you are, then you still won’t be able to get a prostate exam, because you. Won’t. Have. A. Prostate.

And the exact same argument is going to apply to Pap smears.

So why is it that advocates are arguing for this change in the law? This seems an even more insane argument than the hard left usually puts forward.

@Drillbeast.. Exactly… When I make an appointment for a doctor’s exam, they don’t ask me what my birth certificate says.. when you buy insurance coverage, they don’t ask you to see the birth certificate… stupid argument … but then, the liberals/democrats ARE THAT STUPID!!!

this is fun! follow the bouncing ball–pick your own gender on your revised birth certificate (or is that re-birth certificate?) to make things ‘easier’ for you. will it be easier to get a prostate exam as a biological male re-certified as female or a pap smear for a biological female re-certified as male? or will you really need those tests if you self-identify that you don’t have the parts? do you also get a re-do on your chronology? start life again at the point that you re-certify? does that mean you can stay on your parents’ insurance until you re-attain the age of 27? does that give you a shot at reassignment surgery on their dime?

aw, heck–it’s easier to join the military and let them deal with it. . .

MAMA. That is what i was gonna say. WHEN EVER has someone been required o hand over acopy o their birth certificate for ANY medical needs?? EVEN when i signed up for life insurance i was not required to do so..

Great opportunity for kinky men “transgendering” on birth certificates just to play sports on a girls team and use the same locker room. This is INSANE as are the politicians (mostly democrat) who live in IL.

Lady Macbeth cried out in Act I, scene 2, “Unsex me here!” Her intentions were not of gender but of purpose, murder. This notion of transgender now comes close to non-sex, or nonsense. We are born male or female with specific physical traits, what we think cannot change that, and reassignment surgury has been proven to be not that effective.

Another proposal before state lawmakers would prohibit male students from using a restroom or changing room designated for females, and vice versa. To accommodate transgender students, schools could — but would not be required to — establish separate, single-occupancy bathrooms and changing rooms.

Nah…! Remember “whites only” “blacks only” ? Phychologically devastating via isolation. The transgender male wants to walk right into the ladies room without a problem. And the transgender female may want a prostate exam too…and with the ACA would have gotten it!

Exactly HOW will they prohibit him just walking in the woman’s showers??? AND IF THEY CAN, then WHY THE HELL can’t they do the same to the ACTUAL perverts who do just that, as several reports of it happening in Target stores shows WILL HAPPEN when this insanity is coddled!

Ahhh I guess upending 99.95% of the population is okay, since it’s THIS important… I mean, c’mon validating someone’s birth defects or mental issues is of paramount importance. Especially since all other aspects of life in America could be considered utopian

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